A bill was introduced this month by Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal to remove it the Long Beach Press Telegram reports:
"The law originally was written in 1950 and re-enacted in 1967, the same year gay men protested police brutality and harassment at the Black Cat Tavern in Silverlake, which some historians consider the birthplace of the gay rights movement.
Some minor amendments were made to the law as late as 1977, but the basic language - calling for a cure for homosexuality - remains in state law.
On Feb. 19, Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, introduced AB 2199. The bill would repeal Section 8050 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, which declares the State Department of Mental Health 'shall plan, conduct and cause to be conducted scientific research into the causes and cures of sexual deviation, including deviations conducive to sex crimes against children, and the causes and cures of homosexuality...'
Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California and bill sponsor, brought the idea in the past few months to Lowenthal's attention."
Said Lowenthal: "Our codes are constantly updated, and the fact this language has survived this long is pretty amazing. We need to blot it out and make it clear we're moving forward as a society, not backward."
Amen.
Posted Feb. 26,2010 at 8:35 AM EST by
No surprise here.
Never forget -- we are all outlaws.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Feb 26, 2010 8:42:40 AM
Thank God for a few level-headed people!
Posted by: Dean | Feb 26, 2010 10:04:03 AM
Although it was superseded by the state law decriminalizing sodomy in 1975, technically "homosexual behavior" is still illegal in San Francisco.
As hilarious as it sounds given just how much law breaking occurs in that regard, it is important to remember that California was once a very conservative - and very Catholic - state.
The Catholic Church sponsored a raft of morality laws in the 1930s that Italian and Irish politicians pushed through with little debate. The police enforced those statutes until the mid 1960s when they were de-prioritized and forgotten. They are all still on the books though.
Posted by: John | Feb 26, 2010 12:42:03 PM